Good News for Steel Plant Workers: Is Privatisation Off the Table?

There’s some good news for workers at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, also called Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).

The government is thinking about not privatising the plant after all. Instead, they might merge RINL with another state-owned company, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

This merger could help solve some of the financial and operational problems RINL is facing.

The government is also looking at ways to provide money for the plant, such as selling land to NMDC and getting loans from banks.

Recently, important officials from the Department of Financial Services, the Ministry of Steel, and the State Bank of India (SBI) had a meeting to discuss what to do.

SBI has a lot of money tied up in RINL, so they’re interested in helping.

The goal is to find a long-term solution for RINL’s issues, and merging with SAIL is a big part of that plan.

RINL runs a steel plant in Visakhapatnam that is India’s first shore-based integrated steel plant.

Back in January 2021, the government had approved selling its entire stake in RINL through privatisation. However, the latest talks suggest a different approach.